//------------------------------//
// 3. Land of Giants {Pt. 1} 
// Story: Equestria Girls: Chased By Dinosaurs 
// by zooloverryan 
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This is zoologist and adventurer, Nigel Marven. He's spent his whole life traveling the world, in search of the largest animals alive today.  But he always wanted to meet the ultimate giants. To go on a prehistoric safari. Amongst the largest land animals ever.



To travel back in time and Walk... With Dinosaurs!




Argentina, 93 million years ago…

In Prehistoric South America, it is a normal day. The sun is shining, a herd of iguanodonts are browsing on the trees, and all is calm.

Needless to say, it doesn't last.

Suddenly, without warning, a blue vortex appeared out of thin air. And before any of the dinosaurs could react, a Jeep Wrangler is ejected from the portal and spooking the ornithopods into stampeding.

This vehicle belonged to naturalist and conservationist Nigel Marven. And with him were Fluttershy and Twilight, both in what Nigel would call, ”the perfect zoologist’s attire”.

{Note: just visualize the duo in their jungle outfits from Dance Magic, minus the pith helmets}

Soon, the trio arrived at their camp as Nigel exited the jeep before speaking to the cameraman. "Just imagine, that this line here represents 233 million years B.C., the time when dinosaurs first appeared," Nigel tells him as he drew a line into the dirt before Twilight drew another line. 

"And right over here, this represents 66.5 million years B.C., the time when all non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, and with them, a vast majority of fauna that the world may never see again."

"Now we’re precisely here." The Englishman said as he drew another line in the dirt." 93 million years B.C. in the Turonian, the second age in the Late Cretaceous. This magical place will one day become Argentina. We’ve always wanted to come here, because the dinosaurs that live around here, they're the biggest ever."

A small distance away from camp, Fluttershy was off on her own and near what was to be the skeleton of a titanic dinosaur. "This is the skeleton of an Argentinosaurus, the largest land animal that ever lived. Look at it, it must be over 130 feet long," she said with amazement. "Even so, some of these massive bones have puncture marks in them from formidable dagger-like teeth. What kind of monster could take out prey as large as this? It couldn't have been T-rex, it would have been another 25 million years before it evolved, it was a predator that was close to its’ size, if not larger."





"So, this is the setting of a prehistoric clash of titans, the biggest prey of all time…" Fluttershy said.



"The biggest predator of all time…”



“And just imagine a hunt like that, and it happens here every year."



 Any day now, this area, just a mile from our camp, will witness an extraordinary arrival of giant dinosaurs. Every year, a herd of Argentinosaurus visits this lake, and every year, giant predators gather to hunt them down.

"This is such a special place," Began Fluttershy to the camera. “because the Argentinosaurus come here to lay their eggs." She crouched down at the remains of an eggshell from a previous breeding season. "This shore on the edge of the lake - it’s the perfect nursery for them. Look, there's eggshells scattered all over the place here." She picked up one of the eggs. "That gives you a good idea of what these huge animals hatch out of. Quite small beginnings - the full egg is the size of a football."

She began to dig up one of the nests with a trowel. "It's exactly as I suspected. Look. The females come here year after year because this is the perfect place for them to lay their eggs... and Nigel, Twilight, and especially I can't wait until the herd comes back to lay their eggs for this season."

But the first dinosaurs I saw here were hardly even giants.

Soon, out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy noticed a saturated red sauropod with a light underbelly meandering amongst the shrubbery; moving to hide behind a tree, so that he didn't startle the animal, she said. "It can't be anything else than a Cathartesaura, a relatively small species of sauropod. This one may look like a young sauropod, but this thing is an adult, these sauropods don't grow very big."

"Only a few skeletons have been found of this animal, mostly consisting of a few limb bones," Fluttershy explained while the Cathartesaura wandered around the nesting site. "The generic name is composed of Cathartes, a type of new world vulture genus, and saura which means lizard. This creature is one of the last of a dying breed of the diplodocidae with the titanosaurs filling their ecological niche when they are gone."



She followed the beast down to the bank and crouched by the edge of the river as one of the last diplodocids gently trotted away. But what Fluttershy didn't realize was that she was being watched…

Even standing next to this smaller sauropod was quite an experience. What on Earth would it be like to get close to an Argentinosaurus which was much larger than this Cathartesaura? I could hardly imagine it...

Suddenly, without warning, a theropod with a striped head, light brown skin, tiny arms, and a vibrant throat pouch, mock charges toward the animal enthusiast, causing Fluttershy to let out a startled yell and go for a tactical retreat.

“Mother of Faust,” panted Fluttershy some distance away from the predator. “I’m smiling.... because of the shock of that..."

*Recaps to mystery theropod mock charging Fluttershy with a vicious roar*

"Scared me... out of my skin...” said Fluttershy, catching her breath from the near-death experience. “And… I'm pretty sure I know what this is, a theropod called Skorpiovenator. This dinosaur is part of a family of theropods known as abelisaurids, these dinosaurs usually have tiny arms, smaller than even the arms of T-rex." 

"This dinosaur is one of the predators of Argentinosaurus hatchlings, and he and other Skorpiovenators will be a real threat to the herd." She explained. "When they come to the nesting site, the abelisaurs will be waiting for them, so the young Argentinosaurus can be taken by this fearsome creature."

Soon, she left behind the nesting site and back to camp, to avoid getting into any trouble with an aggravated Skorpiovenator.







Walking along a slightly steep hill, Nigel took a swig from his canteen as calls of different dinosaurs were heard in the distance.

"We can't just sit around and wait." Fluttershy said, looking back to the camera "This is an active way to look for the herd.”

“If we can get high enough," Twilight gestured to the top of the hill they were walking up. "Then we should be able to see for miles and get a view of them if they're anywhere near here."

As the duo climbed further up the hill, they noticed a small herd of dinosaurs browsing on nearby trees, the same ones that ran past their jeep. "At last!" said Nigel. "Some dinosaurs. It's not the herd we’re looking for. I'm pretty certain that they are a type of iguanodont. These are very successful dinosaurs; they've been around since the Mid-Jurassic; they'll be around until the end of the Late Cretaceous and they colonized every single continent."



Our search for the elusive giants was taking us an increased distance from the nesting site. To find their migration route, we even went as far as the ocean.

“We’ve come all this way to find that this coastline is too steep for big animals—" Nigel told the cameraman before a relatively large pterosaur flew past him and the girls. "As I was saying; for big animals like Argentinosaurus to move along." 

The large pterosaurs were covered in brown pycnofibers, had dark purple skin, large beaks resembling that of a stork, and huge leathery wings almost like a bat. 

 But this place was a perfect habitat for another type of massive reptile, which was thriving: the pterosaurs!

Fluttershy decided to approach one of the large pterosaurs as it looked at her carefully before calling out to another.

"This is one of the most thrilling sights in the prehistoric world, chaoyangopterids are flying all around us." She told the cameraman. "I've come up to this one, who is just digesting a crustacean and I'm just 8 feet away. It's only when you get this close that you realize how huge they are."

“But some people wonder how can these large animals fly?" Fluttershy said as the teen watched one of the chaoyangopterids fly around the sea. "It’s because everything about these creatures is designed to be lightweight, the bones are hollow and these membranous wings, the only support is these thin and flexible rods. They’re more like bat wings than bird wings."



She watched on as a big male chaoyangopterid took off into the sky. Others landed on the beach and started picking at the tide pools, taking small crustaceans up from the water and eating them.

Eventually, the trio left the Cretaceous beaches and drove back to the camp as the sun began to set.

We hadn't found the giant dinosaurs, but they had found us.

“What the heck…?” Fluttershy muttered in utter disbelief as the headlights of the jeep revealed that the campsite had been completely wrecked!

“Flippin’ hell!” Nigel exclaimed as he approached one of the tents that had massive gashes on it. “There's been a big animal here. Look at those…slash marks. The whole place has been trashed.”

"Look at this quick!" Twilight called out. "A dinosaur tooth trying to bite into this can of meat. And it’s enormous! There must’ve been a really big predator here."

"I don't think it was a Skorpiovenator though," Fluttershy said to Twilight. "Skorpiovenator can't make those kinds of slashing claw marks."

Soon, the trio heard a loud hissing sound, which sounded almost like a crocodile, before going into the tent, still nervous about the predator should it come back….

*To be continued…*